Net neutrality: SaveTheInternet group claims it has ammo to expose Free Basics

According to TRAI and 90% of 2,800 users polled by savetheinternet.in, no notifications were sent by FacebookKrithika Krishnamurthy&Neha Alawadhi | ET Bureau | January 20, 2016, 09:38 IST

In a new twist to the net neutrality saga, volunteer-led community of SaveTheInternet.in is urging people to email and ask Facebook why it failed to inform users about a letter the telecom regulator wrote to the social network seeking specific responses to questions asked in the differential pricing paper about its Free Basics initiative.

“With this, SaveTheInternet.in team has enough ammunition to show TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) that Facebook did not inform users,” said Kiran Jonnalagadda, CEO of HasGeek, who ran the email campaign for SaveTheInternet.in on this new initiative.

It all dates back to the first half of December, when Facebook started a mass campaign on its platform asking users to support Free Basics, in response to a consultation paper on “differential pricing of data services” released by TRAI. As part of its campaign, Facebook urged its users to email TRAI in support of “digital equality” and supporting Free Basics.

This was, however, done without addressing any of the questions posed in the paper.

On January 1, TRAI asked Facebook to alert its users to send revised responses to the questions on the consultation paper, as a vote for Free Basics did not hold up as a valid response.

“We have reached out to the users who responded through Facebook, asking them to specifically answer the four questions that you have raised in the consultation paper,” Ankhi Das, director of public policy at Facebook India, South and Central Asia, wrote to Trai on January 6, a copy of which is publicly available.

But, according to the telecom regulator and about 90% of 2,800 users polled by savetheinternet.in, they did not get any notification from Facebook.

Now, the activist group is asking users to question Facebook’s public policy director on why the company failed in its duty to inform them. Facebook did not respond to an email request for comments as of press time on Tuesday.

But there’s a caveat here as well —there is no way for this community to verify if users emailing SaveTheInternet. in had initially voted in favour of Free Basics.

Facebook, too, does not come clean on its numbers, according to a letter uploaded by Trai on its website. The social networking giant claimed to Trai that it sent 1.1 crore responses but the regulator said it has received only 18.9 lakh responses. “Just like with Facebook. There’s no evidence,” said Jonnalagadda.